This invention relates generally to a stereoscopic camera having an optical system which focuses, converges and exposes left and right images of a stereoscopic image couple on to 65 mm negative film, the left and right images respectively lying diagonally on adjacent film frames and having an aspect ratio of 3:1. The film moves horizontally with each frame having fifteen film feed perforations, the right image being formed on a full lower half of one film frame occupying one-half the width of that frame and having a length equal to the fifteen film perforations, the left image being formed on a full upper half of an adjacent film frame and occupying one-half the width of the adjacent frame and having a length equal to the fifteen film perforations.
And, the present optical system controls the stereo image through a double viewfinder which converges the stereo image pair into one full stereo effect.
The film shot on 65 mm film in the camera can be printed on 70 mm film having film images capable of being projected on to a wide screen of about 50 feet high and 150 feet wide.
The first of the modern wide-screen processes was Cinerama, a system using three lenses to take the entire picture and the recording of a scene on three strips of standard 35 mm film. Another wide-screen process is CinemaScope which combines stereophonic sound and a wide-screen picture on a single piece of film. CinemaScope uses an anamorphic lens on a standard 35 mm camera to horizontally compress or "squeeze" the image on the film vertically moving. A similar type of lens is used on the projector to "unsqueeze" the image in projection, thus restoring the image to its original size and shape. The release prints are 35 mm wide with the image pair located over and under on a vertically moving film having an aspect ratio of 2.55:1.
Todd-AO was a wide-screen process which departed from the standard 35 mm film, using 65 mm film in the camera and printed on 70 mm film having an aspect ratio of the projected image of 2.2:1. The stereoscopic image pair is located over and under on the vertically moving film as in the M-G-M 65 method of motion-picture production which uses 65 mm film in the camera. The film has a picture height of five perforations using a special lens which gives an anamorphic compression of 1.33 to the width. Contact prints 70 mm in size are made and projected in a 70 mm projector which has a lens with a 1.33:1 decompression ratio.
Super Panavision is another method using a 65 mm system but which has no anamorphic compression. Again, the over and under image pair is located on a vertically moving film.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,825,328 discloses an optical system for a stereoscopic motion picture camera for producing stereo pairs of adjacent, vertically spaced left and right images of the field of view with over and under images on a vertically moving film. The system includes a relay lens which forms two vertically aligned and separated, left and right images on the film, each image occupying approximately one vertical half of each frame area.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,551,036 discloses a method and apparatus for stereoscopic photography in which two 35 mm stereoscopic images are photographed in side-by-side relationship on a single 35 mm motion picture film frame by laterally compressing both images through a single anamorphic lens to approximately half of their normal width and projecting the compressed images in side-by-side relationship onto a single 35 mm film frame.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,178,090 discloses a three-dimensional camera device having a single lens for the photography of right and left images from an object transmitted as first and second light ray bundles from two positions separated by an interocular distance onto a single frame of a single film strip moving vertically with the stereoscopic image pair being formed over and under on each half frame.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,767,629 discloses an optical device for a stereoscopic camera with a horizontal film movement wherein several images of succeeding stereoscopic pairs are printed on the upper half of a single film frame, and the other images of the same succeeding stereoscopic pairs are printed on the lower half of an adjacent frame.
Yet another wide-screen process is known as the Imex system for a horizontally moving 70 mm film having 15 film perforations per frame. The left image of a stereoscopic pair occupies the full width and length of a frame, and the right image of the same stereoscopic pair occupies the full width and length of an adjacent frame yielding an aspect ratio of 1.33:1. The system requires a pair of large monocular side-by-side cameras. To effect fast film movement required for the system a cam projection arrangement is provided, or the film is moved by air flow.